Bike Parade Thundered In

The Milwaukee made Harley-Davidson motorcycle is celebrating their 110th anniversary, bikers from everywhere are converging in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Saturday anniversary festivities. Yesterday, here in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which is just fifty one miles from Milwaukee, bikers arrived to celebrate Harbor Thunder at our beautiful lakefront.

Hundreds of Harley owners arrived at Uke's Harley-Davidsons dealership in Kenosha, the starting point of the Harbor Thunder bike parade that ended at the Kenosha lakefront.

At 5:30 p.m., the first motorcycles pulled out of Uke's parking lot, to start the bike parade. Who were the leaders of this parade? None other than the Kenosha police motorcycle unit who ride Harley-
Davidson motorcycles.

Kenosha police motorcycle unit leads the parade toward the Lake Michigan's lakefront.

Bikers waved and honked their horns along the route to the lakefront.

Many of the bikers proudly displayed our nations flag.

This motorcycle was truly a family affair.
Mom, dad driving the bike, and two kids in the side car.

When the first bikes arrived at the lakefront around 6 p.m., there were still bikes leaving Uke's nine miles back. The unofficial count 782 Harley's, formed a long, moving line of rolling thunder.

It was an impressive site.

Graffiti Allowed

On the end of the dock in Ephraim, Wisconsin, which was originally built by brothers Aslag and Halvor Anderson in the late 1850's sits the Anderson warehouse. 

While visiting Ephraim, Wisconsin in Door County, one landmark that every visitor must see is the Anderson warehouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The warehouse is located on the dock that was originally built in the 1850's by the Aslag and Halvor Anderson.

The original warehouse was destroyed by a storm, the second by fire, the third still standing is now known as the Hardy Gallery. In 1951, the Anderson family sold the dock and warehouse to the village of Ephraim.

Still a working dock, Anderson warehouse is best known for its graffiti covered walls. A sign posted on the warehouse states, boater and visitors are encouraged to continue the tradition of signing the warehouse wall.

Armed with a new package of markers we left our mark on this historic building.

It was difficult to find an empty spot, after several minutes of looking I found the perfect spot...

Sanderson 2013 Family Vacation

If you are ever in  Door County, Wisconsin plan on stopping at the old Anderson warehouse/Hardy Gallery located in Ephraim on Anderson Lane and Highway 42 and leave your mark. 

Joining P52 Sweet Shot Tuesday

Oh What Fun Social Media and Smartphone Cameras

Social media, in particular Facebook, was used during our family vacation, to keep the family members who couldn't be with us up to date on our vacation fun.

Cameras on smartphones helped capture that 'gotta take a picture of this moment, ' case in point while driving down highway 42 to Sister Bay for breakfast at Al Johnson's.

The car was filled with three children and two adults the windows were down, and we were enjoying the blue sky and the scenery. The conversation went something like this.

Who tooted?

Not me, it was you.

Eww, that is a nasty smell!

Following the curve on the highway we discovered we were right behind the STOOLBUS! I always thought they were called honey wagons, we all had a good laugh.

We arrived at Al Johnson's, a Swedish restaurant in Sister Bay, Wisconsin to dine on the Swedish pancakes and meatballs, and to see the goats on the roof, I did a post about this restaurant several years ago, click here.  

Another photo opportunity . . .

Al Johnson's is a very popular place to eat and often times the wait for a table can be long, but we know that if the counter is open you can walk right in and sit down. While others placed their names on a waiting list for a table, we saw all eight chairs empty at the counter we sat down. 

Of course, I needed a photo for a Facebook post. Here is the photo that I uploaded that morning.

This is my youngest daughter, her husband, her two younger boys and my oldest grandson. Shortly after this post my sister sent me a text asking why Susan was wearing her bar on the outside of her shirt. We all had a good laugh, well maybe not Susan, from this photo. Here are some comments from Facebook.

Often times cameras on smartphones are not the best quality, but if I didn't have a smartphone I would have missed this photos. I'm still chucking about these fun photos.

I am joining Smiling Sally for Blue Monday, stop by and checkout this fun blog party.

First Day of School Photos

Photos taken just before the start of the new school year of my grandchildren.

First day of school.

LuLu Belle getting ready to start her first day of kindergarten.

What a bitter sweet moment it was to realize that
my sweet girl will be in school all day.

My emotions were all over the place as I watched her walk in I missed my grandson entering his door for the start second grade. Geez :((

Wishing all the teachers and students a positive and productive school year.

Cairns

Since Door County is where our family vacations will be happening, several years ago I purchased a paperback book titled 101 Things To Do In Door County by Richard R. Rusnack. It sat on the book shelf last year because I forgot all about it, but this year it was a travel guide to places we hadn't seen before.

My oldest daughter Amy went through the book and wrote what year we had accomplished the suggested activities, it is now our goal to do all 101 things in Door County. Some of the activities will require winter visits, but most can be achieved during the summer months.

When we first started going to Door County, we discover Sunset Park in Fish Creek. It's a small park with a trail that leads down to the waters of Green Bay. What we saw dotting the beach took our breath away. Cairns or rock balancing structures surrounded us in various sizes. Cairns or rock balancing is done by rocks being balanced on top of one another in various positions. No adhesives, wires, supports or rings are used to aid in balancing the rocks.

It was fairly early in the day, well before 9 am. We wander around the area enjoying the beautiful creations while taking photos, we were mesmerized with these astounding rock creations.

My oldest daughter Amy with my
granddaughter surrounded by cairns.

My sweet granddaughter LuLu Belle standing by a
cairn in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, Sunset Park, July 2010.

My sweet sister and her husband were due to arrive that morning, and we were anxious to show her the cairns. After she had settled in, we drove over to the park to show her this wondrous site of hundred of cairns. We were shocked and saddened when we saw that someone had destroyed all of the rock formations.

This year after a picnic lunch we decided to find Cave Point County Park a recommended place to visit in the book 101 Things To Do In Door County. We parked our car and hiked a short distance before we say the water of Lake Michigan and all of the cairns that were built up and down this rocky beach area.

Smiling I gingerly climbed down the wall of rocks to the beach area, we wandered around looking at all the cairns, from the simple to the complex. It was an amazing sight to see. My grandson even built a small cairn of his own.

Declan decided to build a cairn of his own.

My two oldest grandsons July 2013.

For the past three years, we stop by Sunset Park in hopes of seeing cairns decorating the beach area again and we have been disappointed all three years. I am so glad we found Cave Point Park and got to see cairns on the beach.

Finding Sunset Park and those astounding cairns is one of my favorite Door County memories.

We Are Family

About five years ago, I thought wouldn't it be a wonderful experience for my children, their spouses, my grandchildren, and myself to make family memories that would/could be passed down through the generations. Hence the last Saturday in July is the start of our week long Sanderson Family Vacation. What was I thinking?!

Several days before we depart for Door County Wisconsin, specifically Egg Harbor we began packing. We stay in a three bedroom townhouse that sleeps twelve, kids get the honor of sleeping on the two sofa sleepers. Two full bathrooms, a half bathroom, kitchen area, dining room, living room, loft area, garage, and a deck. The complex has an indoor and outdoor pool, tennis court, playground, and hiking trails. My daughters and their friends and family will go up at different times during the year, but this is when we vacation as a family.

My son is not a lover of Door County, so I bring his son up with me so he can enjoy spending time with the family.

Spending seven days with family can and does have moments of frustration, but the frustration is resolved quickly and peace is restored until the next frustration.

I love every moment good, bad and ugly of our family vacations, just look at these photos...

I had seven days that filled my heart with such joy and happiness. Do you do extended family vacation? Do you go to the same place every year? Where is your favorite spot to vacation? I would love to hear about your vacation adventures.